Takashi Homma, from the series Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji, 2023/24 © Takashi Homma; photocopy by Aaron Stern
The International Center of Photography | 84 Ludlow Street, New York
On View January 29, 2026–May 4, 2026 | Public Opening January 29, 5–8PM
The International Center of Photography (ICP) is proud to present HARD COPY NEW YORK, a group exhibition celebrating the contemporary use and enduring appeal of the photocopied image, developed by Aaron Stern and curated by Stern and David Campany, Creative Director at ICP. The exhibition brings together renowned photographers from different generations working in abstraction, documentary, art and fashion photography. Each has been invited to have examples of their work reinterpreted as photocopies, reasserting photography’s uniqueability to offer a democratic and tangible experience. Featured artists include: Daniel Arnold, David Black, John Divola, Zoë Ghertner, Takashi Homma, Jerry Hsu, Shaniqwa Jarvis, Ari Marcopoulos, Ryan McGinley, Asako Narahashi, Thomas Ruff, Collier Schorr, Stephen Shore, Gray Sorrenti and Andre D. Wagner.
Photocopy technology was invented in 1938 and its commercialization followed in 1949 as a way of making fast and cheap reproductions of documents. Soon after, artists and designers began to experiment with its distinctive grainy feel and informal aesthetic, using it as a way to explore the concept of reproduction while expanding their means for doing so as well.
While no imaging process is ever truly obsolete, photocopying was eclipsed by new methods of digital scanning and storage. Despite these innovations, the allure of the photocopy aesthetic has remained because of its unique qualities—we all recognize the particular ‘look’ of a photocopy, with its associations of cheapness, speed and ubiquity, along with its particular evocations of beauty or ugliness. Though it retains its own historical sensibility, the photocopy still symbolizes reproduction and mutation, effects we all experience in a world of what now seems like near infinite image proliferation.
Following previous iterations, including a 2025 show at Webber Gallery in Los Angeles, the exhibition features a unique process of collaboration between the participating artists and co-curator Aaron Stern, who photocopies the original images contributed by each artist. These images are then scanned and, if necessary, enlarged. Moving between intimate and epic scales with subjects ranging from the diaristic to the photojournalistic, via landscapes, portraits and still life, HARD COPY NEW YORK revitalizes a collective engagement with analog technologies and methods of image production. From a 51 foot long autobiographical mural by Gray Sorrenti (b. 2000), to a recreation of images by Stephen Shore (b. 1947) of Andy Warhol’s Factory that were first presented in a deliberately low-quality exhibition catalogue in 1968, the exhibition situates photocopying within the present while alluding to its history, one that is rich but still largely unwritten.
“Bridging high culture and low, the refined and the raw, HARD COPY NEW YORK shows how photography’s creative potential often lies in its most unexpected and mutable forms,” said David Campany, co-curator and Creative Director at ICP.
About Aaron Stern
Aaron Stern is a Manhattan-based curator, artist and author working between the Americas and Europe. His photographs, books, writing and curatorial projects have appeared at institutions and in publications such as ROSEGALLERY, Webber Gallery, WSA, Magenta Plains, Dashwood Books, Perrotin, Photo Saint Germain, the International Center for Photography, Paris Photo, Los Angeles Art Book Fair, Index Art Fair, Purple Magazine, The Paris Review, Vogue, The New York Times, Dazed & Confused and Interview Magazine.
Exhibition Support
Exhibitions at ICP are supported, in part, by Caryl Englander, Almudena Legorreta, ICP Board of Trustees, the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund and with public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
About The International Center of Photography
The International Center of Photography (ICP) is the world’s leading institution dedicated to photography and visual culture. Cornell Capa founded ICP in 1974 to champion “concerned photography”—socially and politically minded images that can educate and change the world. Through exhibitions, education programs, community outreach, and public programs, ICP offers an open forum for dialogue about the power of the image. Since its inception, ICP has presented more than 700 exhibitions, provided thousands of classes, and hosted a wide variety of public programs. ICP launched its new integrated center at 84 Ludlow Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in January 2020. ICP pays respect to the original stewards of this land, the Lenape people, and other Indigenous communities. Visit icp.org to learn more about the museum and its programs.